Sunday, March 07, 2010

hyperlipidemia

"Your readings are very high... I only see this in 5-10% of my patients"-Dr. L


I've finally decided to start on cholesterol-lowering medication. This comes after recent trips to the polyclinic to do blood testing and subsequent consulting with the doctors. The polyclinic GP appeared very concerned when reviewing the blood test results during my consultation. In a "second opinion", over the telephone, I could hear a hint of distress from the Gleneagles heart specialist I was referred to speak with. (that's his quote at the start of this blog entry) I've been reminded again to monitor my diet and exercise. And since I have a genetic predisposition that gets my liver producing more cholesterol than ordinary folk, I must take extraordinary measures to curb its heart-disease-inducing potential.

After discovering my condition years ago while still serving NS, I've been battling it the natural way (via diet and exercise) because I never fancied the idea of having to rely on medication so much. Guess it
This decision, I hope, will have greater effect while I'm still young enough to do something about it. I much prefer making sacrificial, beneficial life-changes now to having to seek desperate staying-alive solutions due to negligence in future. So, resolutions are 1. to eat fresh, natural foods and avoid fat and processed foods as much as possible, 2. to do cardio exercise for at least 20-30min, 3. to do the above two with determination and discipline

Sidenote: was reading an ebook about nutrition where the author warned of the dangers of the Standard American Diet / S.A.D. (burgers,fries,cola). Ironically, eating SAD used to make me happy. There's never been a better time to grow out of nostalgic childhood MacDoctrination.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi WeiRong,

it's been a while. Sorry to hear that. I'm also in a similar situation. I just had my blood test two days ago, and the good news is that the bad cholesterol went down, but it is still not low enough, which is the bad news. So it went down from 145 (2008) to 138, 100 being normal.

Anyway, doctor recommended me to get onto a supplement called red yeast rice. It's over the counter, no prescription needed(here in US, not sure in Singapore). If my cholesterol does not improve in 6 months, i need to get onto medication too.

Kinda sucks. But hopefully this dietary supplement helps. You might want to look into it too.

And yes, I'm going to actually do the exercises I planned to do. And eat my greens and salad.

I'm planning to drop by Singapore on May. Hope we can meet up sometime.


Sam

David Chen Weirong said...

Hey Sam!
fancy hearing from you here, of all places.. You can probably tell I've hardly been updating this blog haha..

man.. looks like we both need to adopt some serious measures for health. I've been prescribed a low dose of "Simvastatin" and will have to go check for any improvements in the coming months.

Anyway, just to update: Zhiwei married last year; had a 1st-month-baby-shower for his daughter Meredith in Jan this year; Alvin Chua had his wedding dinner earlier this month on the 6th, Kerong went through surgery for his appendicitis last week, and, Marcus has planned his' wedding dinner to be on 23rd October this year.

Alright, hope to hear from you again if you're flying back to SG. :)